The city of Aveiro presents an educational CD-Rom to initiate children to Art Nouveau

(2009)

The educational CD-Rom "O Cavalheiro Arquitecto e a Arte Nova" aims to give various tools helping to discover the Art Nouveau movement in Aveiro. The buildings and architects, the context and characteristics are all tackled in a playful way accessible to the young public (children and youngsters). Simultaneously, a space dedicated to teachers presents various texts and suggestions of activities to organise at school or during a visit of the buildings.

The Riga Art Nouveau Centre in Latvia, that used to be mentioned on the website of the City of Riga, has now its own website where the centre and Art Nouveau architectural heritage of the city are presented and where all events related to Art nouveau in Riga are announced.
The Riga Art Nouveau Centre also moved into new premises in the Art Nouveau building located at 12, Alberta street, the facade having being restored a few years ago and the interior still being in the restoration process.

A new activity book for children at the Horta Museum

(2008)

Children will now be able to discover the Art Nouveau house on Simone's footsteps (architect Victor Horta's daughter). In this diary-like activity book, the girl explains her father's work, going through various architectural topics, techniques and architectural materials. In French.

The Réseau Art Nouveau Network presented in Palermo in the framework of a conference organised by the Dipartimento di design, Universita degli studi di Palermo on December 4th, 2008

The Belgian week planned in La Habana's historical centre, aims to shed light on the bonds between the two countries Cuba and Belgium. The main theme that will be dealt with during the week of the third edition is "Material and immaterial heritage". The "material heritage" part will focus on Art Nouveau architecture, around which various events will be organised during this week:
Exhibition on Art Nouveau in Brussels in parallel with Art Nouveau in La Habana - November 7th to 15th in the Galeria del Convento San Francisco de Asis, third floor
Exhibition "Undiscovered Portrait of Art Nouveau in Brussels": the photographer Serge Brison gives his view of the Art Nouveau heritage and by making its undiscovered portrait, explores barely tackled facets and insists on the present life of this heritage. Bruxelles' exhibition is a selection of 30 photographs out of 3.000 taken all over Europe.
A view of La Habana's Art Nouveau: even though the Art Nouveau heritage of La Habana can seem discreet, it is not acknowledged as it should be. Selecting and displaying isolated elements helps discovering and revealing the Art Nouveau spirit by distinguishing details from the whole. A glance on stony details on the façades of "Catalan modernisme" of La Habana shows how precise are the ironworks, a tour of different Art Nouveau interiors, to observe the rich production of mosaiques, the architectural treatment displayed on the facades and approaching the artistic graphical affluence allow to present an undeniable presence of Art Nouveau. An essence present - therefore to discover - in the city and in memory (coordination : Orlando Inclan, oficina del Historiador).
Conference on Schuiten and Peeters' experience at the Autrique House - November 10th at 10.30 a.m, Public Library Ruben Martinez Villena, Plaza de Armas : the experience of restoring the Autrique House, first work of the architect Victor Horta, shows many common points with the restoration approach promoted by the Oficina del Historiador of the City of La Habana and therefore the cultural use attributed to the building. Those similarities can be used as exchanges and identify similar processes as those used in the Autrique House.
Comic strips and architectural heritage - from November 10th to 14th, 2.30 to 4.30 p.m: workshops for children "Oyé", this is Art Nouveau or My comic strip to discover Art Nouveau
Comic strips workshops aimed at primary school pupils from La Habana Vieja (Old Habana) are organised around the topic "Architectural heritage in comic strips". First, it helps children to identify Art Nouveau amongst the buildings of La Habana Vieja and to know more about their history in a second step. That way, through the art of comic strip, children from La Habana Vieja are able to identify the Art Nouveau style in the historical centre.

2nd clock heritage day in La Chaux-de-Fonds, November 8th, 2008

(2008)

Clock heritage days are inspired by European heritage days. This event aims to get the general public to discover and appreciate the material and immaterial clock heritage in the cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, both candidates to belong to the Unesco world heritage.
Activities:

guided tours in Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds and discovery of clock heritage

The first section of renovated rooms dedicated to European ceramics had lately already opened, where you can discover objects from the XVth to the XIXth century, ending spectacularly with the famous ceramics collection of Delft. The second part, dedicated to the XXth century production, has been accessible since last summer. The public can admire Art Nouveau ceramics, especially a pretty important collection of Willy Finch's works. The Art Déco style will also be illustrated by the famous vases designed by Charles Catteau for Boch Keramis. Most of them come from a collection acquired by the Foundation Roi Baudouin before being put into storage at the Musée du Cinquantenaire. After-war and contemporary times are also represented through decorative or utilitarian works from Pierre Caille, Roger Somville, Carmen Dionyse, Piet Stockmans, Tjok Dessauvage, Mieke Everaet and many more.

In Darmstadt, exhibition "Russia 1900: Art and culture in the Empire of the Last Tsar" - October 12, 2008 - February 1st, 2009

(2008)

Symbolism, national Romanticism and Neo-Primitivism – Russian art at the threshold of the 20th century presents itself in various facettes. The art scene of that period was characterised by the tension between a leaning towards West European Modernism and the search for a specifically “Russian” style derived from its own cultural roots: thus ideas based on folklore, fairy tales and enjoyment of colour became characteristic hallmarks of Russian art around 1900.
A special emphasis in the exhibition lies on the Jugendstil in Russia. It is thus treading new ground, for until now painting, graphic art, architecture, arts and crafts, and design influenced by this style have never been shown in these quantities. The exhibition not only brings together exquisite works of art from the most important museums in Russia, but also provides insights into the programmes and reality of the artists’ associations, studios and factories that were setting the agenda.

The Jugendstilverein in Bad Nauheim makes copies of Art Nouveau patterns to finance a restoration of the Sprudelhof

(2008)

The Bad Nauheim Jugendstilverein in Germany made the decision to duplicate a seahorse Art Nouveau pattern (see photo) in order to finance the restoration of the main Art Nouveau site of the city, the Sprudelhof.

Extension of the Exhibition on the architect and applied arts artist Endre Toroczkai Wigand (1869-1945) in Godollo, Hungary, from February 9th to November, 2008

(2008)

Since 1900, when Academic Architecture, Innendakoration and Magyar Iparművészet published some works of Ede Toroczkai Wigand, his name and interiors attained renown in Europe. Owing to The Studio and its Yearbooks, Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, he became a foreign representative of British (plank) style, although it was his architecture that was reported from time to time. It was declared the equivalent of Baillie Scott's in Hungary. The reason for this qualification was his special composition of interior spaces. His architecture possesses a seemingly striking twofold character: modern and vernacular. In both cases, his composition of different kinds of spaces (as those of Victor Horta, Antoní Gaudí, and Frank Lloyd Wright) meant an alternative in architecture during the era of Historicism and Eclecticism, as well as in engineering. His initiative was to compose spaces instead of repeating them or copying historical spatial structures, and to construct large halls. Due to the singular basic method of the two stylistic paths of Wigand's architecture, the sources of the vernacular and the modern are one and the same.

A new publication about the work of Henry van de Velde in Poland

(2008)

In Trzebiechow, since the Second World War a small city in Poland and before the German city of Trebschen, a sensational artistic devise was discovered: Henry van de Velde, the famous Belgian designer of Art Nouveau, created the interieur of a sanatorium there between 1903 and 1905.
Apart from essays on topics of artistic and historical interest as well as on the story of recovering the work of van de Velde, the German-Polish publication contains many actual photos, historic illustrations, letters and other documents published for the first time. For what is known by now, the sanatorium's interieur represents the single opus of van de Velde in Poland.

In Brussels, the Saint-Cyr House soon renovated

(2008)

Listed in 1988 and bought in 2006 by the estate company Movast, the Art Nouveau house is now being renovated with the support of the Department of Monuments & Sites of the Region Brussels-Capital, which participated to the front façade restoration costs up to 380.000 €.
The Saint-Cyr house was built between 1900 and 1903 according to the plans of the architect Gustave Strauven, Victor Horta's student. This house is a good example of architectural feat, for the architect took advantage of a very narrow piece of land located in a bourgeois quarter of North-East Brussels to create a frenzied high masterpiece, which originated what will be called later "flamboyant Art Nouveau". On top of two balconies, the last level is made up of an almost circular loggia topped with a wrought iron element made by Charles Van Waeyenberghe. The underside of the balconies is decorated with sgraffitos and the shapes of the window frames are inspired from the flora world. Finally the richness of the railings, made of extravagant lines of ironwork, is predominant in the architecture, overgrowing as creeping ivy.

The exhibition catalogue "Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)" now available

(2008)

This book publication complements the exhibition dedicated to Victor Prouvé in the three museums of the City of Nancy in 2008 and displays all the disciplines he worked in until the first world war: painting, fundamental and continuous aspect of Prouvé's work, together with sculptures, drawings, engravings and photographies ; decorative arts, which he was one of the most fervent defenders within the Ecole de Nancy movement ; the multiple image, to which the artist devoted his attention during his whole carrier.
Around 300 works, from some never exhibited, belonging to the Nancean collections, to the ones from Parisian great institutions (Petit Palais, Musée d'Orsay, Musée des Arts et Métiers, Musée des Arts décoratifs and the Bibliothčque nationale de France), or kept in private and family collections, make an exceptional corpus, revealing a great artist from the early XXth century.
This catalogue is the first substantial book published in the late fifty years ; it gathers contributions from specialists of each discipline and recall Victor Prouvé's carrier.
"Victor Prouvé (1858-1943)", common work by Christian Debize, Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Sophie Harent, Emmanuelle Héran, Blandine Otter, Bénédicte Pasques, Jérôme Perrin, Philippe Thiébaut and Claude Tillier ; Gallimard. ISBN : 9782070120703.

Glasgow City Heritage Trust present, as part of a series of evening symposia looking at architecture, heritage, conservation and the City of Glasgow - Glasgow, Mackintosh and World Heritage. With special guest speakers architectural historian and author Ranald MacInnes and conservation architect Stewart Brown.

The Réseau Art Nouveau Network now counts two new partner cities: Aveiro (Portugal) and Darmstadt (Germany). The information pages about these cities will soon be added on our website.

Walking in Victor Prouvé's footsteps in Nancy

(2008)

New ! A virtual and interactive walk "In Victor Prouvé's footsteps in Nancy", created by the Musée Ecole de Nancy together with the TIC department of the City of Nancy, has just been put online on the Ecole de Nancy website. Access to the walk

Exhibition 'Oriental Fascination' at the townhall of Brussels from the 24th of June to the 28th of September

(2008)

An exhibition entitled "Oriental fascination (1889-1915)" is shown in the cityhall of Brussels from the 24th of June to the 28th of September. The exhibition gather a special selection of Japanese prints from one of the greatest oriental art collections in Europe and inspired works from around twenty Belgian great artists.

A new structure for our homepage

(2008)

You have probably noticed that our website structure has changed; you can find the "agenda" section in the "news and events" menu ; from now, you will find two different news sections: "network news" and "great international events".

With the Historical Labs we aim to establish an exchange platform of knowledge for a broader audience. The contents of the Historical Labs is a mix of research, practical knowledge and experience, to reflect an agenda that aims to attract members of the general public, as well as those working in the sector. The sixth Historical Lab of the Réseau Art Nouveau Network will be held in Bad Nauheim on May 16th and will explore the following theme: “Art Nouveau : Healthy in Body and Mind”. The event is open to everyone.Programme (French - English)Programme (German)Know more about our Historical Labs

Serge Brison's B & W exhibition in Bad Nauheim from May 6th to 22d

(2008)

The exhibition of Serge Brison's black and white photographs taken in 9 of our partner cities will be presented in Bad Nauheim from May 6th to 22d in the Volksbank Mittelhessen building. This exhibition is a selection of 50 photographs from the nine co-founders of the Réseau Art Nouveau Network: Ĺlesund, Barcelona, Bruxelles-Brussel, Glasgow, Helsinki, Nancy, Reus, Terrassa et Vienne.

The Réseau Art Nouveau Network will be present at the heritage fair "Patrimoine en fête", on October 19th, 2008 at Tour-et-Taxis in Bruxelles-Brussel

(2008)

The government of the Region Bruxelles-Capitale organizes the first edition of “Patrimoine en Fête!”. In the framework of the International Day of Monuments and Sites, this event is meant to be a great family fair in Brussels. A space of exchanges, animations, reflection and discoveries fully dedicated to Bruxelles-Bruxelles and its rich heritage. On the 19th of April 2008, within the historical site of Tour&Taxis, the professionals of Brussels' heritage will come and gather for one day. Well-known or less known, they will come to make us discover their love for Bruxelles-Brussel, for its monuments and sites and will share their knowledge, know-how and motivation with the general public. See poster of the event

In Bruxelles-Brussel, classification of the whole Hôtel Winssinger built by Victor Horta

(2008)

Following an idea mooted by the State secretary Emir Kir, Brussels government decided to classify the whole Hôtel Winssinger in the town of Saint-Gilles. This Art nouveau mansion was built between 1894 and 1897 by Victor Horta for the engineer Camille Winssinger. This building is amongst the first great architectural works by the master of Art nouveau, the Hôtel Tassel, his manifesto work, being built in 1893.

A foundation for the Art Nouveau complex of “Sprudelhof” in Bad Nauheim

(2008)

The long discussion on the future of the Art Nouveau complex of “Sprudelhof” had a positive issue. The county of Hessen no longer searches a private investor to take over the Art Nouveau heritage and build a spa centre. The movement led by five groups of volunteers - including Jugendstilverein - turned out to be effective. In April 2007, a human chain of more than 1,300 persons was organized between the spa complex and the townhall of Bad Nauheim. A parcel with solutions to renovate the Art Nouveau complex and thousands of signatures were submitted to the mayor. The protest against the idea of a private investor and the request to create a foundation were heard. In December 2007, the Prime Minister of the county of Hessen and the mayor of Bad Nauheim signed a resolution: the county of Hessen will invest around 50 millions euros in the restoration of the spa complex. The signature of the constitution act is now in progress. The Jugendstilverein wishes and hopes that cultural institutions such as a "Jugendstilzentrum" will be realized as mentioned during workshops.

A new website for the Gaudí Centre of Reus

(2008)

The Gaudí Centre just inaugurated its new website, available in Catalan, Spanish, French and English: www.gaudicentre.com. The Gaudí Centre is a space with modern infrastructures and top audiovisual technology, allowing to discover Antoni Gaudí and to understand the genuis of his art. You will find all the information related to the centre on the website: educational projects, the world of Gaudí, links of interest, etc.